SuperTweeter Buildout 04Jan20

I completed the buildout of my new Viawave SRT-7 supertweeter additions to my main speaker system. The new sound is awesome although I am still measuring and tweaking. The new drivers in their custom package sit atop my main front towers.

I built some custom "cabinets" just to hold the supertweeters - they provide no accoustic purpose but for a bit of a baffle. I started the packages from a 6"x36" piece of bloodwood (to match the bloodwood veneer on the existing speakers and the tone of our craftsman theater furniture). This is a very hard and gorgeous wood which finished out nicely. I first cut the plank into 6"x6" pieces on my table saw and the cut rabbets and rounded the edges using my router table. I then cut the holes for the drivers with a drill and jigsaw. I  assembled, sanded and finished the "cabinets" in Summit when not skiing.

After mounting the drivers I built boxes for the variable attenuators and any other crossover stuff. Everything gets interconnected via audio banana plugs. I found special stacking banana plugs to allow me to jack into the L & R audio signal currently sent to the mid-high drivers of my main towers. My front channels are bi-amped.

They came out nice and sound great. I'll do more adjusting and measuring but the hard work is done. Including acquiring parts from Russia and Japan, and the handy woodworking.

SuperTweeter Install Update...
I listened and measured and found too great an emphasis/influence from the supertweeter on the mid-range. I installed a 1.5µF capacitor in the signal path to roll off what is sent to the supertweeter @ 13KHz at 6dB per octave - much better but they are $50 per side! Improvement both measured and in smooth listening. Once finalizing the design I buttoned it up...

...And measured again multiple times. Here I show, via REW and my Umik-1, 1st the impact of the Viawave SRT-7 by adjusting the LPAD-1 from .5 down to 0/off. Clearly I've got improvement in flatness from 7K - 20KHz but what influence should I choose? Ultimately I liked .3 on the potentiometer with the cap in place. Listening was awesome in stereo music especially - THX theater modes were good but with so much center channel influence I noticed it a bit less.

Then I measured full range to re-EQ the entire modified setup for music through my new JRiver MC25 HD streamer (with an embedded parametric equalizer). I did notice over-emphasis from my subwoofer so adjusted that too and settled on -55dB for this 18" servo sub. Below I show both an EQ curve for gains allowed and no gains. Using EQ with gains allowed requires more power but does get to a closer match to my house curve. I will try both and may even lower my reference output and shoot another EQ filter set to flatten further.

Still though, the supertweeter endeavor is an unmitigated success and I need to move on to additional DIY audiophile projects.

Blodgett Theater Audio System Review...
Here's quick review of the Blodgett Theater audio system in total. Folks sometimes write these in strings like JRiver MC25 on Lenovo Q150 > Integra Research RDC 7.1 > Integra Research RDA 7.1 > Paradigm Reference Studio 100s with Viawave SRT-7s/Reference CC & Surrounds/Reference Studio Servo 18. It tells the tale from source to transducers. I also have an Integra BluRay player and a Roku 3 as sources. Here it is in pics.